‘New Worlds’ align with Bill Murray and Jan Vogler

Bill Murray is pretty sure audiences will forget that he’s a world-famous movie star and comedic institution by the time they’re halfway through his ensemble music and literature show, “Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends: New Worlds.”

“By the time they remember that they should dislike what I’m trying to do — shooting above my level — it’s already too late,” Murray said during a recent phone interview from a tour stop in Portland. “We’ve already won them over.”

“New Worlds” began as a fluke, one of those magical serendipitous moments that seem to follow Bill Murray around like a shadow. The notoriously quirky “Saturday Night Live” alum and Oscar-nominated actor/comedian met famous German cellist Jan Vogler in the security line at an airport. Vogler was struggling to get his cello through security and Murray couldn’t resist getting involved. As luck, or perhaps fate, would have it, the two wound up on the same flight, sitting across the aisle from one another. A friendship quickly blossomed and after a stroll atop a Brooklyn Bridge poetry festival together, the idea for a Murray-Vogler album and live show was born.

Bill Murray (front) and cellist Jan Vogler of “New Worlds.”

Bill Murray (front) and cellist Jan Vogler of “New Worlds.”

Through song, Murray, Vogler, pianist Vanessa Perez and violinist Mira Wang take their audiences on a journey through American literature and music, with selections from the likes of Walt Whitman, Ernest Hemingway, George Gershwin and Mark Twain. Murray serves as the group’s affable frontman, reciting poetry and belting classics like “I Feel Pretty” from “West Side Story.”

Though the quartet workshopped the live show in New York, the official debut of “New Worlds” was this summer at Festival Napa Valley.

“We played a tiny show in the Yacht Club in New York and there happened to be a gentleman there from the Napa festival,” explained Murray. “And he said, ‘I would like you to play in Napa.’ He’s the first person who asked us, and that’s why we went there.”

Now the close-knit quartet returns to the Bay Area for a show at Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto on Saturday, Dec. 2, and a performance at the Masonic in San Francisco on Dec. 8.

“We’re having a grand time working together,” said Murray, “and already, even though we love the show, it sort of suggests we could do something more ambitious.”

One of those ambitions may include performing “New Worlds” for an extended run. A “guy from New York” planned to attend the Portland performance in the hopes of producing the show back East.

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“If he likes us, we’ll get to work again,” Murray quipped — who, in full Bill Murray fashion, began the phone interview announcing he already had a subscription to the San Francisco Chronicle and didn’t need to be sold one.

For now, having released the album in September, taking “New Worlds” around with country is sheer bliss for Murray and Vogler. The group has performed in major venues like New York’s Carnegie Hall to the 1,100-seat Arkey Center for the Performing Arts in Arcata (Humboldt County).

“There’s a sort of a Motel 6-booker kind of a person,” Murray said of the show’s tour schedule, which often includes stops in college towns.

“We like to include people rather than exclude people,” added Vogler. “We want to explore all different audiences, and bring the show to all kinds of different people.”

Connecting audiences with classical music and American literature has united the quartet in a tangibly tight artistic bond. But the process of weaving together music and literature has not only brought reimagined works to new audiences, it has also connected the artists among themselves.

“We all enjoy being onstage with this great work — and also with each other,” said Vogler.

With Murray in the background, audibly trying to remember the name of “the guy from New York,” Vogler continued, delighted and undistracted. “We are a team. In the end, it’s a great joy.”

Beth Spotswood is a Bay Area writer and columnist for The Chronicle. Her column appears Thursdays in Datebook.